


Keith Needs Hugs

by BlowingYourMind



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, How Do I Tag, Hurt Keith (Voltron), I Ship It, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Sick Keith (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-23 13:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23712475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlowingYourMind/pseuds/BlowingYourMind
Summary: Keith one shots, whump, fluff, angst, and hella sickfic. I pulled this out of my drafts when i was in my Voltron phase.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Request are open

Keith sighed in frustration as he threw the now useless empty box of contacts in the trash can by his bed. He figured he would have enough contacts to last at least a few more days, he would have carried more around if he knew he was going to be spending time in space.

The red paladin growled angrily himself, he knew he was going to run out anyways. He sat on his bed, observing his now blurry surroundings. Colors seemed to merge together, making it difficult to distinguish an object and it's outline.

He got up to his feet, deciding he could last at least a day without his contacts or glasses.

He was wrong.

As soon as he exited his room, he was met with the color white and some blue blurred together. He closed his eyes tightly to remove the surprise of the light, compared to his room, this was a heaven.

He made his way down the hallway, he could tell where the wall was and some of his team mates doors, so he would like to think that his vision problems weren't that bad.

But they were terrible.

All of a sudden a force hit him in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor. He scrambled to his feet, starting to walk again, that was until he tripped over something, tumbling to the floor again.

He hated how his senses weren't at his top so he wasn't fully alert of what was going on around him.

"Keith? Out of all people I expected Lance to trip over me." Someone snorted.

Keith pulled himself up off of the floor once again, straining his eyes to find where Pidge was. He spotted a familiar green tent blending in with the white. "Yeah..." Keith trailed off.

"We have training today, but I figured you would know that." The silhouette of the green paladin stood up, walking down the hallway to the training deck.

Keith wasn't aware that they had training today, and cursed his bad luck. He followed behind Pidge down the halls to the training deck.

Does Shiro know? Keith thought. He wasn't even sure if he told him about his vision problems in the Garrison. He decided not to take his chances, he would power through his vision when training, but it all depends on what kind of training they were doing.

The form of Pidge turned to the right, so Keith assumed that they entered the training deck. "Hey guys" she greeted the team.

"Sup short stack" the form of Lance leaned on Pidge's shoulders. Pidge looked like she elbowed Lance on the ribs, much to Keith's pleasure. His vision was getting better little by little, he could see the colors of each paladin, but most were still blended together.

"Hello Keith, ready for training?" A voice sounded form behind him, then a hand was placed on his shoulder. Keith flinched a little in surprise, but nodded, then cursed himself again for acting out of the normal. "Are you okay?" The hand on Keith's shoulder removed itself, Keith could feel Shiro's worried gaze.

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's just get to training." He answered, luckily he had his armor on, it would be weird if he was training with his normal cloths on.

"Okay team! Gather up" Shiro called.

Keith could hear the footsteps of his team draw closer to make a circle around Shiro, like a team huddle. "We will doing our specialties and what were good at today, and tomorrow we will be practicing the things we are not as good at to sharpen up our skills."

Keith nodded along with the rest of the team, or he hoped the others nodded with him.

"Lance, you and Hunk get to shoot at the targets. Pidge, you will use your weapon to shock, but also try to make more then one hologram with your skill. Keith, you will train more with the gladiator, but this time I will assist the gladiator so it will be more of a challenge." Shiro instructed.

Keith frowned at his bad luck, but followed Shiro to the middle of the floor, the bits of black in his armor and his hair made it easy to identify the black paladin.

"Start training sequence" Shiro told the machine, and as expected, the black and grey robot appeared. At least it was black and grey, if it was white then Keith would be screwed. The robot immediately started racing to Keith, to the red paladin it looked like a blurr speeding to him.

The gladiator formed a sword and swiped, Keith barley had time to escape the swords reach. He avoided if by swooping to the left, after that Shiro came up on him with his robotic arm glowing a purple light.

Keith swung his sword in an arch, attempting to get a blow on Shiro. But the leader caught the blade, yanking it out of Keith's grasp. Normally Keith would be stronger, but everything was out of focus.

In a flash of red, Shiro threw what Keith thought was his sword across the room. Then the training bot came from behind him, using the sword to swipe at Keith's head. Keith blocked the sword with his arm.

If he didn't have his Armour on then his arm would likely be a bleeding mess right now.

The bot pushed it's sword harder, attempting to break past Keith's paladin suit. Then the shape of the black paladin swung his robotic arm to Keith's legs.

Keith fell to the floor, his leg guards were now useless because of the blow Shiro gave to them. Keith scrambled back and caught eye of a red object, he rushed to the sword, but right as he reached it, the robot was standing there.

It picked up his sword, now having two swords. It surged foward to Keith, Keith had just enough energy left to dodge the onslaught of swords.

He then felt the affects of Shiro's blast to his legs, Keith crumbled to the floor, pieces of his armour digging into his legs.

The robot put it's metal foot on Keith's chest, getting ready to slice it's sword into his heart.

"End training sequence!" Keith heared Shiro desperately yell. The blurred light on the training boys face dulled, and it fell over to the side. Keith coughed, having all of the robots weight on his chest did not feel too good.

"Keith?" Shiro's worried voice echoed through the now quiet training deck. Keith frantically looked around to find where Shiro was located. "Keith, I'm right in front of you." Shiro said.

Keith strained his eyes to see Shiro's outstretched hand, some dots danced along the edges of his vision, making it difficult to indicate where everything was located. The red paladin hastily took Shiro's hand, and the leader hauled Keith up off the ground. "Your armor is totaled, and it's hurting your legs. Let me take you back to your room" Shiro offered.

Keith just nodded, looking down in shame and embarrassment. Shiro took Keith's arm and wrapped it around his shoulders, leading Keith out of the training room. Keith could feel the stares of his teammates against his back.

"Hey, whats wrong with you today? Your acting a little... Out of it." Shiro asked once they were out of hearing range.

"I'm... I'm fine." Keith hesitated, he didn't like lying to Shiro.

Shiro didn't push it, instead he entered Keith's room. Keith sat on his bed as Shiro moved to get the gauze that was in every paladin room. He reached for the package, getting the medical equipment out, discarding the package in the trash.

But something in the trash can caught the leaders eye. He reached in the trash can and picked out the blue package that had the words in bold.

Contacts.

Then everything made since, Keith ran out of contacts.

"Keith.." He faced the red Paladin. Keith blankly looked up, searching the room for his leader.

"Why didn't you tell us you used contacts?"

Keith flinched, looking down, he had been found out. Shiro sat on the bed next to Keith, helping him out of the paladin armor.

"Its nothing to be ashamed of, it's just your eyes" Shiro said, by now Keith was in his black under suit.

"Shiro... My vision is really, really bad" Keith sighed, rubbing his almost violet eyes.

"Its okay, none of us will judge you" Shiro finished wrapping the gauze over the irritated skin where his armor dug through. He had cut the under suit to the knees so he could reach the injury.

"I'm sure the space mall might have more contacts, and I will take you there" Shiro volunteered, putting the gauze on the nightstand.

That's when Shiro noticed the glasses case resting by the lamp. He took the case, opening it, pulling out the black framed glasses. He chuckled and made his way over to Keith, who was getting up off of the bed.

"Here, put these on until we go get some more" Shiro handed them to Keith, who placed them on his face.

Keith looked around, blinking his eyes to the new change. "You can go Finnish training, I'm going to change into normal clothes."

"We will be eating lunch, see you then." Shiro nodded, walking out of the sliding door and back to the training deck where the two legs and one arm of Voltron were talking.

"Hey, is Keith okay?" Hunk's voice was laced with concern.

"Yeah, he looked pretty horrible today, i mean, even Pidge could have beat him in a fight today" Lance exasperated pointed to the smallest paladin, who shot him a nasty glare.

"Enough! We will be ending training right now, it is lunch anyways." Shiro's orders emitted a cheer from Lance, Hunk perked up at the thought of lunch. Once Hunk finished cooking and placed the plates down for Lance, Pidge, Shiro, himself, Coran, Allura, and Keith's empty space.

They all are in awkward silence, until Keith walked into the room, his bandages still on his legs. He squinted and looked around, he cautiously took a few steps forward before tripping over one of the space mice.

Lance busted out in hysterical laughter, not completely aware of Keith's situation. Hunk looked with worry while Coran and Allura were equally confused. Pidge, being the smart person she is, already figured out the problem.

Keith groaned and rubbed his nose, Shiro made his way over helping Keith up from the ground. He lead Keith to his chair, all while Lance was still laughing, clutching his ribs.

"Come on Keith, just put them on" Shiro prodded, navigating his hands to the glasses case in Keith's pockets. Now everyone was watching the scene, intrigued to find out what Shiro was doing, even Lance. Shiro pulled out the black framed glasses and placed them on the red paladin face.

Pidge smirked "looks like I'm not the only one with glasses, so I'm not alone." ( A\N:I know she doesn't need them tho) Lance looked shocked before his face turned to a bright shade of red, he would never admit it, but Keith actually looked innocent and slightly cute in the black glasses.

"Oh, that explains a lot" Hunk continued to eat like nothing happened. The rest of them shrugged and went back to eating like Hunk did, not wanting to bother Keith even more or make a big scene out of it.

Shiro chuckled and ruffled Keith's hair "see? It's not that bad."

"Yeah, maybe not that bad


	2. Falling Asleep... During A Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is just tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Writing something other than My Hero Academia fics?! Surprising!

Keith now officially hated meetings. Right after he got done with training with the gladiator for a few hours, he got an unexpected call from Allura telling him that they had arranged a pop up meeting with the Olkari to discuss battle plans.

This little pop up meeting, was in four minuets, giving Keith just enough time to gulp down some water and wipe the sweat off of his forehead. He was planning on going to get some rest after training, but the universe obviously didn't want that.

He continued down the hallway and entered the room with the large rectangular shaped table, there were three Olkari with their leader, they sat on one side. Shiro, Pidge, Allura, Coran, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance took up most of the Voltron side of the table.

Keith was forced to sit on the edge next to Lance.

"Okay, now that we are all present" Allura shot a look to Keith, who shrugged. "We shall begin."

"As you may know, the Galra ships are constantly trying to enslave planets, like the ones we saved and your planet...." Allura began, her voice faded from Keith's ears, blocking her out.

Keith just sat there, looking blankly at the bland room that was all the same shade of white. Suddenly it was as if all of the energy was sapped from his body, leaving him with nothing. The weight on his eye lids were unavoidable, so slowly they closed. Keith would not fully fall asleep... He would listen and close his eyes.

Or so he thought.

He pulled off his jacket to cover his body and not just his arms, and he unconsciously leaned on the closest thing next to him, which was Lance.

Lance was surprisingly listening to Allura talk to the Olkari, but he was zapped out of his concentration when he felt a head on his shoulder. He looked and saw a head of black hair and Keith's pail complexion, his eyes were closed shut, his long dark eye lashes were now evident.

Lance squealed in surprise and jumped a little, causing Keith to lean against Lance even more.

Hearing the squeal, the teams heads shot to Lance's direction. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk just smiled at the sight of the red paladin and the blue one actually not fighting. The leader of the Olkari glanced worryingly at Keith "it seems your red pilot has over exerted himself to the point of sleep."

"We shouldn't have let him come to the meeting, he was training just before" Shiro sighed, putting on his 'worried space dad' face.

"Nah, he's just asleep" Lance looked down to Keith, his cheeks were dusted a rosy color.

"Lance, will you take him to his room? We still have business to discuss with the Olkari." Allura's question was more like an order, but Lance wasn't complaining. He pushed his chair back, facing Keith. Lance slid his hand under his legs and the other hand cradled his back. Keith was surprisingly light.

Lance walked out of the room a little thankful to get out of the boring atmosphere. Keith snuggled deeper into Lance's chest feeling safe in the blue paladins hold. Lance grinned at how adorable Keith was being, the moment didn't last long because Lance arrived to his destination.

He entered Keith's room, a little surprised at how organized it was. He placed Keith on the bed, pulling the covers up to the boys chin.

He pulled a stray strand of black hair out of his face, and stroked his face adoringly. "Please Keith, next time, don't work yourself too hard." He whispered, getting up from his crouch position to walk out of the room.

"No promises" Keith slurred.

Lance only smiled when he heard the respond "good night, Keith."

"G'night Lance."


	4. Training

Slash.

Fake to the left.

Duck.

Slash.

Hit.

Keith's day pretty much went like this, he was feeling worthless, so he came to blow off some steam. A layer of sweat covered his body, and he could feel his heart beating out of his chest, his breaths turned ragged.

Keith knew his body shouldn't take this much at once, but he didn't care, he was feeling dull. Like a pencil without a sharpener, all of the pain of his aching limbs subsided, leaving him feeling like putty.

Black dots danced along the edges of his vision, his body felt heavy, like an anchor in the water.

Another slash.

Sidestep.

Slash to the left.

Kick.

Dodge.

Keith could feel the world spinning, sending his body stumbling to get some balance.

That didn't happen.

~~~~

Lance wasn't feeling himself, well, what he was supposed to feel like. The happy, chipper, seventh wheel who dose nothing but joke. His self worth problem were catching up to him. So he decided to start training, like Keith. It blows off his steam, so why not Lance's?

As he entered, he was caught off guard by the scene that played out in front of him. Keith was spinning, tripping over nothing. His greyish violet eyes rolled to the top of his head, his body went limp, crashing to the floor in a heap.

But the training bot didn't stop.

Lance barley had time to comprehend what was happening before he burst into action, the training bot had its sword lifted, ready to slash down into Keith's neck. Before it's sword could come into contact with the red paladins skin, Lance jumped in front of the blade, his gun blocked the machines sword.

Lance pushed the sword aside, shooting the drone right in the head. It fell off, rolling to his feet.The Cuban quickly turned to Keith, crouching down to observe him. Keith's eyes were shut, but his face was scrunched up in pain or worry. Maybe even a combination of both.

He lifted Keith's head and put his two fingers to the boys neck, checking his pulse.

It was faint.

"Dang it Keith, just stop it. Don't over work yourself like this" Lance cursed under his breath, picking Keith up bridal style. He ran to the main control with Keith in his arms, he was hoping at least one of the Alteans was there so they could put him in a healing pod.

"Shiro! Allura! Someone! I need help!" Lance called before bursting through the doors. Like they were answering his pleads, Shiro and Allura turned to Lance, looks of shock on their faces.

"What has happened!" Allura ran with Lance to the healing pod area, Shiro in tow.

"i-i don't know, I saw him fall while fighting the bot. I'm pretty sure he passed out from Exhaustion." Once the got to the room Lance placed Keith on one of the high tech hospital beds.

"Can we use the pods?" Shiro asked, a look of concern for his younger adoptive brother on his face.

"No, it only works for physical injury, like a laceration of some sort." said Allura's accented voice.

"He over worked himself, so he should wake up. But their should be some serious strain on his muscles." Shiro added in, convincing Lance and himself that Keith should be okay.

"Allura I need you and Shiro in the generator room now!" Coran's voice sounded over the speakers built in the castles.

The two adults looked to Keith and then to Lance "it's okay, I got him. Now go!" Lance shooed the two out of the room.

Leaving him and Keith.

Lance walked back over to the side of the Koreans bed, looking him over in sadness. He didn't know why Keith did this, train until he dropped. Then it hit the blue paladin. Keith, just might have the same problem he did. He grabbed Keith's shoulder, then embraced him in a hug.

"You need to stop, it doesn't matter what you look like, or what you do. You are always an important member of the team. Your the red paladin, the temperamental, hot headed one not the sad one. So you do you, it doesn't matter how bad you think of yourself, because everyone here loves you." By now Lance was crying, clinging to Keith.

Keith smiled into the hug, wrapping his toned arms around Lance.

Then he whispered into Lance's ear.

"Thank you, blue.


	5. Spiders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm legit afraid of crabs.

Everyone was eating the lunch Hunk made happily because Coran didn't serve them space goo this time. Keith set his spoon down, not needing anymore food, he got up to place his plate in the Altean equivalent of a sink.

Before he could turn away to walk to his room, he spotted something on the wall right next to him. He leaned in closer to see what it was. Keith let out an audible gasp. It's harry eight legs moved up the wall, it's black beady eyes stared into his soul menacingly.

Keith let out a high pitched squeal as he stumbled back, backpedaling into the counter and falling on his butt. He shivered uncontrollably, tears pricked at the edges of his vision, the feeling of immediate doom washed over him.

"Keith! Are you okay?" Hunk asked, concern laced in his voice. Shiro ran to Keith and helped him up, he tried to pull Keith to his chair, but the red paladin wouldn't budge.

"What is wrong?" Allura was more confused then concerned.

Lance then started laughing from the other side of the room, where Keith found the spider. "D-dude" he breathed desperately for air "that- that was just a s-spider!" He exclaimed, laughing hysterically.

Keith's bottom lip trembled, Pidge and Shiro gave Lance a look saying shut your mouth.

"Im- I'm out of here" Keith sniffed, his voice cracking.

"He has bad Arachnophobia, I wouldn't laugh if you had that kind of fear, and I'm sure he wouldn't either, you owe Keith an apology." Shiro ordered. Lance looked down in shame, he knew he shouldn't have laughed at Keith, and that was his mistake. He was more than willing to fix it.

He walked to Keith's room, knocking on the door. He could hear Keith hiding sobs and his heart broke. "G-go away Shiro!" Keith cried.

"it's not Shiro, it's Lance."

"Why are you here, to make fun of me again?" 

"No look, I'm sorry. I guess I'm jealous you have such a common fear." Lance admitted .

There was a beat of silence "What do you mean?"

"My fear is embarrassing, more than a fear of spiders." Lance was blushing on the other side of the door in embarrassment . A second later the door slid open, revealing Keith's red rimmed eyes, with red splotchy skin from crying.

Lance pulled him into a hug, Keith awkwardly patted his back. After that they both walked in and sat on either side of Keith's bed. "So... What exactly is your fear?" Keith eyes Lance's now pail face.

"Well, it's a little embarrassing since I'm the blue paladin and I'm supposed to like all sea life, but I really really really hate..." Lance waited a second, Keith looking at him expectantly.

"Come on, tell me." Keith elbowed the Cuban teen.

"Crabs. I hate crabs. There. Especially the giant snow crab or the Japanese spider crab. I'm terrified of them, even the smallest ones."

Keith grinned, but didn't laugh at his face "yeah, agreed. Crabs are probably one of the second animal that scare me the most."

Lance looked up to Keith "really? Your not laughing?"

Keith raised an eyebrow "no, why would I be? Crabs, especially the giant ones. They are basically giant spiders with armor."

Lance snorted, appreciating that Keith wasn't laughing at him like he did. "But seriously dude, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed."

"It's okay, your glad I don't hold grudges, apology accepted."

~~~

But little did they know, the other paladins were looking at a live video feed from the red paladins room. "Spiders... With armor?" Pidge was astounded at the comparison.

Shiro shook his head, a smile gracing his lips.

"Of course Keith would say that."


	6. Fevered Dreams

Keith did not feel good. He just woke up, and found that it was hard to lift his head from his pillow. He groaned as he blinked rapidly, trying to ward off the migraine that already made it feel like his head was being banged against a table.

Keith's stomach churned as he sat up, leaning on the wall behind him.

The red paladin thanked God that the lights weren't on, or else he would be pretty much blind and his migraine would only get worse.

Out of all the years, now he had to get sick?!

Keith had a pretty good record for not getting sick, in fact, he hadn't gotten sick in a little over two years. But when he did get ill, it got pretty bad. He pulled back his sheets, that were not drenched in sweat, and let his bare feet touch the cold metallic floor.

When they came in contact, it sent tingles up Keith's spine. He was shivering, but at the same time hot and sweating profusely. He ran his hands through his hair, getting the coal black hair out of his face.

Keith leaned on his bed heavily as he thrusted to his feet.

He unsteady walked a few steps, his stomach was now tugging down, sending an all to  
Familiar feeling to his throat. Keith decided to ignore the warning, and try to make his way to the rooms light switch.

He was going to face the light outside when he went to see the other paladins. He knew he couldn't skip a day, it would be suspicious, he could at least make it to breakfast. But his thoughts were interrupted when he tripped over his own feet, sending him crashing to the ground, his shirtless back took the majority fall.

Keith lay there for a minute, letting the feeling of dread wash over him.

His stomach started twisting itself into knots, and his back stung like he just got rope burn. Despite the pain, Keith slowly sat up to his feet once more, turning on the lights in the process. At first it burned, but the white faded, leaving just his fluffy vision and his now searing head ache.

He stumbled to the bathroom, now a little more accustomed to the lack of his body control. He looked himself over in the mirror. His raven hair was plastered to his forehead, sticking out in odd angles, his violet eyes looked a little less sharp, and more unfocused. His already pail complexion was more ghostly.

He turned to look over his back, it was rash red, a few places were even bleeding. Keith pulled a black cotton T-shirt over his back, making sure not to add any pressure to his back. He decided to leave his sweatpants on, since pretty much everyone in the castle ate breakfast with their night wear on.

Keith turned away from the mirror, his stomach was sore, but there was not anymore nausea.

Good.

Keith then slipped on socks and made his way down the empty hallway, occasionally stumbling. But it was only sheer will power that kept him going. He did not want his team to think he was weak. So far in space, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro had only gotten sick, and Keith didn't want to be on in that list.

When he entered the room, everyone stated at him like he had gone crazy. Only Shiro was in paladin armor, and Keith usually would be in his too. "Umm... Keith, you okay? You don't look so good." Hunk asked concerned, as he served some alien food that Keith hasn't bothered to look at.

Just the smell of it made his stomach grumble, and not in the good way. "Thanks" he grumpy replied, cringing at his own voice. It sounded like some space dogs came and shredded his voice box.

"Okay... Well eat your food." Hunk advised, plopping down next to Pidge and Lance.

"Where is your amour, you always wear your amour!?" Lance questioned.

Keith just shrugged and looked down to his food, unwillingly lifting the silverware filled with the space goo to his mouth. The rest of the team decided to shrug off Keith's actions and eat their own food. But Keith could feel Shiro's gaze boring a hole into his scull.

After Keith managed to swallow a few bites of food down, everyone was placing their food in the Altean sink. Keith, supported by the table, discarded his dish into the sink. But when he turned back, Shiro was standing there, his arms crossed.

Damn it. Keith thought. I really thought I could convince them I was alright.

"Keith" Shiro spoke, his tone was disapproving "I know something is wrong."

"I, uh, I'm fine. Seriously Shiro."

But the older paladin wouldn't take i'm fine as an answer, he pulled Keith by the wrist to him and put his flesh hand on Keith's forehead. Keith only squirmed a little, knowing fully well that he couldn't get out of Shiro's grip, especially in his weakened state.

Sweat was rolling down his neck, and just in that moment, Keith's body decided to shudder, making him clench his teeth and wrap his arms around himself. Keith couldn't help it, but his legs were strained from walking so much while he was sick, so he leaned into Shiro, who still had him in a secure hold.

"Your obviously sick, Keith, let me help you."

And just in that moment, Lance and Hunk decided to turn the corner, hearing what their leader said. But Keith was in too much pain to care. His legs were now shaking from the strain, his nausea was back with a vengeance, and his migraine was not treating him well.

"Did we... Interrupt something?" Lance wiggled his eye brows jokingly.

"And did you say Keith was sick?" Hunk added, already making his way to the two.

"Yeah" Shiro let go of Keith "i'm going to need you to help me with him." Once The red paladin was set on his own two feet, he swayed before his legs gave out on him.

Keith let out a groan, clutching his stomach before he fell. Lance used his swift reflexes to catch the sick paladin in his arms. Hunk was immediately by their side, checking Keith's pulse. "It's a little slow, he probably has the flu" 

"Alright" Shiro wrapped Keith's arm around his shoulder, Lance took the other. "Let's get him to his room, then we can decide what to do. And Hunk, would you make him some soup and find some medical supply's that might help?"

Hunk nodded and hurried off to ask one of the Altean's if they knew anything, as Shiro and Lance hauled a half conscious Keith down the hallway.

"Hey Keith? When did you start feeling sick?" Lance asked as they entered his room. It was surprisingly neat, but the lights were too bright for Keith's sensitive eyes. Then red paladin squinted and looked around, grunting as Shiro set him down in a sitting position on his bed.

"The Morning" was Keith's reply. Both of the boys noticed Keith's damp sheets, he had been sweaty all night. Shiro snatched the sheets off of the bed, making Keith move around a little bit so he didn't fall off of the bed.

Then the black paladin sent the sheets to a laundry shoot and slid the cloth down to the cleaning rooms, grabbing some more blankets from a closet. Lance eased Keith down on the bed, once his back came in contact with the mattress, Keith winced, hoping Lance didn't notice.

But of course he did.

"Did that hurt?" Lance's eyebrows were scrunched up in something Keith couldn't tell. Keith only shook his head, but immediately regretted it as that movement sent a shock of pain radiating from his brain, all the way down his body like waves crashing on a shore.

Keith clutched his head, sitting there in a fetal position for a few seconds, just looking at the back of his eyelids. Shiro had left the room to find Hunk, leaving Lance alone there.

Keith felt a light hand place itself over his hot forehead.

Keith leaned into Lance's cold touch, normally it was warm, but strangely, anything below 60° was usually cold to Keith. Lance massaged Keith's head, his fingers ran through his raven locks. This had eased the pain away, fading back to where it came from.

Keith wasn't used to being cared for like this, his foster parents would just leave him to do chores, he had to fend for himself for so long, especially when he was in the desert shack, searching for food, and when he got sick up there, he had to suck it up.

And with that, he fell into uneasy sleep.

Lance stopped rubbing Keith's head once he was sure he was asleep, smiling to himself at the usually bold paladins rested face. Lance then remembered Keith's pain in his back as he lay down on it, so the blue paladin lifted him carefully, lifting up his shirt.

There were certainly scars that were sewed into his skin, but his back was red, some faded blood stained his black T-shirt and pail skin. Lance frowned, he knew the shirt had to be uncomfortable on Keith, so he took it off, laying Keith back down, this time on his side.

Just then Shiro entered the room and took one look at the situation.

"He has some bad burn on his back, he must have tripped or something." Lance explained, pulling the blankets up to Keith's chin. Shiro nodded, carrying some space soup with a thermometer like object and some medication in the night stand by Keith's bed.

"We can see his temperature right now" Shiro grabbed the Altean device, putting it on Keith's forehead.

"Wait... Is that how Altean's use thermometers?" Lance seemed a little surprised, it worked somewhat like an earth's thermometer. The metal device then emitted a strange beeping sound and the numbers read 103.

Lance panicked.

104° was known as a medical emergency, and he was just one degree away from that.

"Hey, Keith has been sick before, I'm sure he will be okay, he has faced more than the flu before." Shiro reassured, but he too, sounded like he was convincing himself.

"What do you mean?" Lance asked curiously, watching the sleeping pilot.

Shiro sighed before continuing "it isn't my place to tell you, but when he was in the Garrison, he had to be emergency air lifted to the nearest hospital because his spleen was enlarged and he got appendix. It was about to rupture, but we were able to get it out. This is probably why this fever is worse than normal."

The leader stopped to take a breath "and I figured he would stop faking being alright, I thought he had learned his lesson. But apparently not." Just then the intercom went off in the castle, stealing Lance's attention from his teammate.

"Shiro, we need you in the main control room, your arm might have some vital information on it. " Allura announced. Shiro's lips curved downward, not wanting to leave his foster brother.

"Its okay, I can watch him. " lance shooed Shiro out of the room to go help Pidge, Coran, and Allura.

~~~~

Keith retched into the toilet, his stomach heaving with every attempt to rid himself of the vile crawling up his throat. "Its okay, Keith" a soothing voice said "just let it out."

Keith didn't know who the voice was, but he didn't care. His limbs ached, his throat felt like crap, his migraine was coming back, and his hair was blinding his vision. As if reading his thoughts, a tan hand weaved itself through his hair, gently pulling it back.

Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, he was still struggling with keeping the vomit down. Her didn't fear throwing up, it was just his choke reaction at work. A relaxing touch traces circles on Keith's back, making him less tense.

As soon as he knew it, he was done dry heaving for the fifth time that day into the toilet. This was utterly exhausting, he remembered Hunk telling him that he was worried Keith was losing too much fluids.

The tears now spilled down Keith's face, he whimpered in agony, just wanting the pain, all of the pain to go away. He was in too much pain. The person immediately wrapped their arms around Keith's weakened body.

Keith was clinging to that person like a life line, sobs racking his frame. He was done. He was done with this all. This was worse then his appendicitis. 

He was sick for a total of three days, his temperature was not going down one bit, staying at 103° Maybe this was part of his Galra side working against him. But it might also be keeping him alive. Keith was to tired to get up from the cold tile floor, he felt his eyes drooping.

He knew without looking that he looked like crap, he probably had bags under his eyes, and he probably smelled. But that didn't stop the team from taking shifts to take care of him.

Suddenly Keith was back in his bed, still facing the side half because of his injured back and half because of the pain that clenched his stomach. He realized that he was still sobbing, and that Lance had carried him to his bed.

Lance wiped the tears away from the other boys face, but others soon replaced them. Keith held back more whimpers, some occasionally escaping his lips. Lance looked at his fellow teammate in worry and pity, he hated seeing his friends like this.

Keith felt sleepy, but his eyes remained open, unfocused and glazed over in pain. "Hey, why don't you go to sleep?"

Keith's bottom lip trembled "n-nightmares" he slurred. Lance realized that Keith had been having fevered dreams the whole time he had been sick. Lance then let his body take over, and climbed on the other side of the bed next to Keith.

Keith turned to face him, looking like a lost puppy, tears still trailed down his cheeks. Lance wrapped Keith in a protective hug, placing Keith's head on his chest. He let out a few reassuring words, ending it with a soft lullaby.

Keith was now asleep, uncomfortably hot against Lance's skin, but he didn't care. As long as the pain ended. Then Lance drifted off along with his sick friend, secured tightly in his arms.


	7. Allergies

Oddly, there were still allergies in space. Keith found that out the hard way. Keith remembered one time at the garrison when he had severe allergies, a wave of pollen had come down to the flight school, making a lot of cadets call in sick.

Keith had spent the whole day with his eyes watering, his nose runny, and the worst of all, his sneezes. Shiro was rather concerned, but he also said that Keith's little sniffles were 'cute' and his sneeze was 'adorable. '

And now Keith was stuck in the same situation, but ten times worse.

His hands wouldn't stop shaking, his eyes were just unfocused, his hair stuck up from the humidity, his nose wouldn't stop its attack on his body, his voice came out in small squeaks, and the urge to sneeze was almost impossible to resist.

But when your Keith, pretty much everything impossible becomes possible.

He thought of watermelons as he walked out of the castle and on to a cornfield like landscape. (If you think of watermelons when your gonna sneeze, it might work and make you stop.)

The long blades of the alien grass reached up to the red paladins thighs, constantly changing colors, and when they walked it made a yellow pathway for them. They had recently entered the atmosphere of an unknown planet that was seemingly uninhabited, Allura and Coran urged the paladins to go explore while they fixed up the castle.

Lance, of course had been exited. Pidge and Hunk didn't care, and Shiro was unsure. Keith just wanted to go back to bed and cough and sneeze and sniffle all he wanted too. Of course Shiro dragged him along saying he needed to get off of the training deck and see the light of space.

"What are we waiting for?" Lance asked "let's go already!"

"Not all of us want to be here, Lance" Pidge snarled a few minutes after they started walking.

Keith didn't catch Lance's reply, it was drowned out by his concentration of trying not to sniff or cough. Eventually though, he had to give in. Keith let out a small sniffle and wiped at his leaking eyes furiously, but he bought up the rear of the crew, so no one bothered to look back.

Unfortunately, Keith let out a few small, strangled coughs and more sniffles. Shiro, who was in front of Keith, looked back, worried. "You aren't getting sick, are you?" He put his hand on Keith's forehead and frowned, it was a little warm.

Keith shook his head furiously, a few unwanted tears pricked at his eyes, so he wiped them away like he did the others. "You seem a little feverish, we're only about a mile out, so if you want we can turn back." Shiro offered.

By now the whole group stopped, all observing the red paladins state.

"Yeah" Hunk agreed "it's just fields anyways. Nothing really interesting other then the colors." Keith shook his head for a second time, he wanted his friends to keep going, they hadn't landed on another planet in a while.

"Keith, please. Your obviously struggling with trying to hide that you have allergies." Pidge adjusted the glasses perched on her nose, making her look like an evil genius. Keith didn't like being stared at, especially knowing that his hair was messy, his eyes were blood shot, and his skin was probably paler than usual.

"So that's what's been going on" Shiro mused "no wonder, It's just like that time at the garrison-"

Keith placed a hand over the black paladins mouth, cutting him off. "We dontt speak of that" Keith's voice cracked multiple times. Lance giggled at Keith's voice, but stopped when the red paladin glared daggers at him.

"Let's go" Shiro now took the lead, dragging an unwilling Keith, with Hunk and Pidge wondering out loud how this planet could give him allergies.

"So" Lance dashed to the front "What were you saying about the garrison?" Keith gave Shiro a look, but despite that, Shiro explained the poor boys situation.

"He really should have called in sick, but he just kept flight training going. It was spring, so all of the pollen was coming over the garrison in waves. Keith had many bad symptoms, but the worst thing was..." Shiro stopped dramatically, looking to Keith.

Keith gave him pleading eyes, but that didn't work. Shiro was about to continue, but Keith felt the familiar tingling sense coming from his nostrils. He begged to any good being out there that would help him not sneeze.

But he did it anyways.

His sneeze came out like a kittens sneeze, soft and not too loud. The group immediately halted, all looking at Keith like a bomb went off.

"The worst part of his allergies was his sneezes, they were the most lovable sneezes anyone could muster. At first The whole garrison thought it was weird, but then they thought it was cute." Shiro finished his explanation .

The other paladins let out chuckles and laughs, making Keith look down awkwardly.

"So now that that's clear" he sneezed again "can we just go?"

The rest of the team picked up on his distress and all nodded in sync, wordlessly continuing their trek.

Finally

Keith thought miserably

I just want to pretend this day didn't happen and just go to sleep.


	8. Sleepwalking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Writing something other than My Hero Academia Fanfics?! Never!

Shiro

Shiro thought that Keith had gotten out of the nocturnal habit when he was way younger, but apparently stress has been effecting Keith. That's what Shiro figured bought back Keith's sleepwalking.

He found out when he was doing his nightly rounds to check on the paladins. He grew a little weary when he found out that Keith wasn't in his room, but he brushed it off and went to look in the training deck.

Shiro came through the training deck door, guns loaded, ready to scold Keith about taking care of himself. But quickly stepped back, confused. Keith was in the training room, but he wasn't training, instead his back was facing Shiro, his head downward.

Then Keith took a few shaky steps foward, and narrowly avoided running into the wall when he turned around. Shiro knew that Keith was sleepwalking the moment he saw his glazed violet eyes staring right through him.

Shiro approached quietly, grabbing Keith's bayard out of his hands. "Come on buddy" he coaxed "Let's go to bed." He gently lead Keith by the elbow to his room, Keith followed almost mechanical like.

When they got to Keiths room, the red paladin collapsed to his bed. Shiro let out a surprised chuckle and left the room, door sliding shut behind him. Looks like old habits die hard.

The Team

The five paladins and two Alteans were having a movie night, it took a lot of explaining and begging, but they somehow acquired a T.V and a movie. Keith was exhausted from training earlier that day, so he passed out rather quickly on Shiros shoulder.

Keith was a restless sleeper so he tossed and turned, but Shiro just let him, the rest of the team didn't even notice, being to engrossed in the movie.

But their attention was averted from the movie when Keith sat up ramrod straight. He slowly stood up and just looked down. Pidge quickly paused the movie.

"Umm, Keith is their something you would like to say?" Allura asked.

She got no response.

Keith just stared dead ahead.

"Hello mullet? Get away from the T.V. Were trying to watch a movie." Lance said, annoyed.

Nothing.

"Keith are you ignoring us?" Alluras tone twisted to ignorance. Keith sluggishly walked past the T.V, and to the hallway. Pidge was cracking up, she already found out what was happening with Keith. Shiro quickly sprang from his seat, running to Keith and grabbing the boys elbow.

"I want taco bell." Keith muttered lethargically. The team, not including Shiro and Pidge, gave Keith a strange look. "Oh, so we're talking today, bud?" Shiro grinned, leading Keith back to the couch.

"What did I just see? " Lance furiously rubbed his eyes.

"Sorry guys, he does that sometimes." Shiro said sitting down once Keith was sat back on the couch.

" He gets possessed? " Coran sounded genuinely frightened. Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk let out giggles.

"He wasn't possessed Coran" Hunk started, catching his breath.

"He was simply sleepwalking." Pidge concluded.

"What is Sleepwalking? " the word sounded foreign on Allura's tongue.

"It is when the brain is in a half asleep state, but vaguely aware. It can cause people to get up out of bed and walk around while half asleep, there were even some reported cases of some people sleep driving, but we'll get to that later. It usually occurs to 5-10 year olds, but they outgrow it, then why does Keith still sleepwalk?..."

"Thanks Pidge" Shiro cut in. " I'm sure Coran and Allura are well informed now. "

Lance was just as confused as the two Alteans in the room, being reduced to the word "wha?"

Bonus: Lance

Lance just tightened his bathrobe around himself as he strode out to the kitchen. It was in the middle of the night, what they assumed was night, and he was hungry.He turned the corner, completely surprised to find Keith opening the Altean equivalent of a fridge.

Keith slowly grabbed the milk ( A\N: thanks Kalteneker.) And got the jug out of the fridge. Lance watched, astounded as Keith got a bowl and filled it up with the liquid until it overflowed onto the counter top.

Lance quickly intervened, grabbing the jug out of Keith's hands and throwing it back in the fridge. Keith just stood in the same place, looking with unseeing eyes.

"M' drink" he whined half halfheartedly.

Lance chuckled, gently grabbing the red paladins shoulders, remembering what Shiro did when the group had movie night. "It's okay red, I'll get you some in the morning, okay?"

"morni'n." Keith echoed.

Keith fell on his bed, Lance pulling the covers up to the other males chin.

"Tha'ns Lance." Keith mummered.

"No problem Keith."

Little did they know that the red paladins sleep walking wold be a reoccurring thing.


End file.
